We are glad
you asked
this
question:
Palestinians do not want peace? The Palestinians made a substantial peace offer When their National Council met in Algiers, 15 November, 1988, to declare an independent Palestinian state within the pre June 1967 borders with East-Jerusalem as its Capital. Peace was offered from the Arab side by Nasser and later Sadat in 1971, though without nominating the rights of the Palestinians. Israel declined the offer straight away. [1]
The Palestinians do not recognise Israel as a Jewish state! No, but they will recognise the State of Israel. What do we demand, that the Palestinians must become Zionists before we make peace with them? The Palestinian national leadership as represented by the PLO has recognised the state of Israel within the 1949 armistice lines over and over and over for the past 20 years. They have even given up political claim to half the territory appropriated to them by the UN in 1947. They recognise the state of Israel, just as every country recognises the existence of other states though not necessarily agreeing to their ideologies, self-definitions or policies. Since 20% of Israelis are Palestinians, there is no reason why the Palestinians should be expected to accepted the Jewish character of the state. That would compromise the right of their own people, Palestinian citizens of Israel, to struggle for a democratic Israel offering equality to all its citizens, a struggle many non-Palestinian Israelis also support. Guaranteeing Arab- Palestinian citizens of Israel the fundamental right to full equality is a key element in the broader Palestinian program. It cannot be reconciled with recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. [2]
Hamas does not recognise the State of Israel! Again, a simplistic, self-serving slogan. On the surface its true: Hamas, which sees all of historic Palestine as Palestine, will never recognise either the political legitimacy of Israel or the fact that 78% or more of Palestine belongs to another people. This is a reasonable and understandable position from an anti-colonial perspective. But Hamas is also pragmatic. So it has agreed – in the Prisoners’ Document of 2005 as well as in subsequent policy statements – that if the Fatah party enters into negotiations with Israel and the outcome approximates a genuine two-state solution, it will respect that if approved by a Palestinian national referendum. This, like the other slogans, are not only misleading they are counter-productive if we seek a true peace for Israel. [2]
Israel had to fight for its survival in against thr arab army's in 1948! This is a tedious fabrication bordering on infantile propaganda. In a letter to Moshe Sharett on 18. February 1948, Ben Gurion wrote: “If we will receive in time the arms we have already purchased, and maybe even receive some of that promised to us by the UN, we will be able not only to defend (ourselves) bur also to inflict death blows on the Syrians in their own country – and take over Palestine as a whole”. [3]
Palestinians were told to flee by the Arab army's? Another example of received wisdom which has no basis in matters of fact. “On 10 March 1948, (well before the declaration of independents of Israel , Plan Dalet (ethnic cleansing) was adopted. The first targets were the urban centres of Palestine, which had all been occupied by the end of April. About 250,000 Palestinians were uprooted in this phase, which was accompanied by several massacres, most notable of which was the Deir Yassin massacre. Aware of this developments, the Arab League took the decision, on the last day of April, to intervene militarily, but not until the British Mandate had come to an end. (15 March 1948)” [4] The complete number of uprooted Palestinians figures around 700.000. More than 400 towns and villages were destroyed and leveled. [5]
The Arabs attacked israel on the 5 June 1967 (The six days war) and Israel had to defend itself? Not true. We respond with a quote from Begin: Address by Prime Minister Begin at the National Defense College- 8 August 1982 “In June 1967 we again had the choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” [6]
The Arabs attacked Israel on 6 October 1973 (Jom Kippur War)? This is correct. Sadat offered Israel a Peace agreement in 1971 based on the pre – June 67 border (UN.res. 242) which Israel rejected immediately even as the rights of the Palestinians were not even mentioned, and announced the same day new settlement construction in East-Jerusalem. [7] Egypt and Syria continued to demand the return of the land taken by Israel in 1967. However, attempts at diplomacy failed, and eventually Egyptian President Anwar Sadat warned that war would come if Israel did not return Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights. But Kissinger and the Israelis dismissed him. [8] In the last couple of years Sadat recognised the failure of his efforts to establish a peace agreement and decided to attack Israel together with Syria. In great measure, thanks to massive support provided by the US, Israel managed to avoid defeat. [7]
There are 22 Arab states, why can’t the Palestinians go there? There is no justifiable reason why the Palestinians should go to any other country. What if some said: All Anglo-Saxon Americans should go back to England because that's where English-Speakers should live? This slogan assumes that all Arab countries are the same, rather than acknowledging the rich variety of histories. Cultures, dialects and climates represented by them. According to the same logic. An Italian should feel right at home in Finland because the majority of both countries are white an Christian. [2]
The Palestinians rejected Barak’s ‘generous offer’ and then responded with violence. The “generous offer” is an urban myth. It stems from the “Clinton Parameters” under which Israel would withdraw from 96% of the Occupied Territories, but came much too late in the process to be implemented. The very idea, however, rests on the mistaken assumption that the more territory the Palestinians get the more sovereignty and economic viability they get. This is not the case. The Palestinians could receive that much land yet still not have a viable state. Keeping only a strategic 5% (in reality more like 10-15% when “east” Jerusalem, settlement blocs,“no-man’s land” and other areas are factored in), Israel could control borders, movement of people and goods in and out and within the Palestinian territories, water, the airspace and the communications sphere, not to mention its main settlement blocs. (Barak’s “generous offer” included 80% of the settlers within an expanded Israel.) It could also control the Palestinian economy, the most important religious and cultural sites of the Palestinians (like the Haram/Temple Mount and other holy places in and around Jerusalem). And it would still leave the refugee issue unresolved. Arafat had solid reasons for rejecting Barak’s “offer” at Camp David – which, by the way, violated the very process of the Oslo agreements by halting Israeli withdrawals, thus ensuring that the Palestinians enter into negotiations from an extremely weak position on the ground. [2] It therefore came as no surprise that during a debate with Norman Finkelstein on Democracy Now, the former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami declared: “If I were a Palestinian I would have rejected Camp David 2000”. [9]
Boycotting Israel recalls Nazi Germany “Don't buy by Jews” This comparison is Infamous and dishonourable. Back then, Jews were boycotted because they were Jews- a racist policy adopted by Hitler’s Germany. Boycotting Israel is due to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and her refusal to meet her obligations under International Law. A Boycott-Divestment and Sanction campaign is a legitimate tool to pressure Israel to do so. [2]
There is no contradiction between being a Jewish state and a democracy. Democracy versus ethnocracy. Isn’t there? Is Israel really a democracy or is it an ethnocracy, a country “belonging” to one particular ethnic, religious or national group? What do the terms “Jewish state” or “Jewish democracy” really mean? Arab citizens of Israel have the vote, but can institutionalised discrimination – 93% of the lands of Israel are reserved for Jews only, for example – be reconciled with democracy? And what about the almost four million Palestinians living under Israeli rule who have no say on how Israel governs them? Can they be simply ignored? There is a contradiction if the state does not extend full rights, and protect those rights, to all of its inhabitants. [2]
Israel has the most humane and moral army in the world. Given the multitudes of human rights violations perpetrated by Israel’s armed forces this cannot possibly be true. And after Gaza... [2]
[1] Palestinian National Council, Algier, November 15, 1988. Official translation, retrieved 28 August 2011
LA Times , retrieved 28 August 2011
[2] Jeff Halper, Jimmy Johnson and Emily Schaeffer, THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT: CHALLENGING SLOGANS THROUGH CRITICAL REFRAMING, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), retrieved 28 August 2011
[3] Ilan Pappe: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Page 46
[4] Ilan Pappe: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Page 40
[5] Wikipedia: Estimates of the Palestinian Refugee flight of 1948, retrieved 28 August 2011
Wikipedia: 1948 Palestinian exodus , retrieved 28 August 2011
[6] 55 Address by Prime Minister Begin at the National Defense College- 8 August 1982, retrieved 28 August 2011
[7] Noam Chomsky: Keine Chance für Frieden, Page 83
[8] if Americans knew, retrieved 28 August 2011
[9] Youtube: Norman Finkelstein vs Shlomo Ben Ami - Part 3, 4:07 minutes, retrieved 28 August 2011
